BL Premium reports that the imminent retirement of Sibanye-Stillwater’s CEO Neal Froneman is the latest change at the top of SA’s largest mining companies, with the bosses of Harmony, African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), Anglo American Platinum (Amplats), Exxaro and Thungela all stepping down in the past year or so.
Richard Stewart, Sibanye chief regional officer for Southern Africa, will take over from Froneman in October. The industry retirements and resignations have seen a new breed of mining executives coming to the fore to take the industry forward – in the biggest C-suite shake-up in more than a decade. The change of the guard at SA’s top mining houses has largely been smooth, with many internal candidates appointed as CEO designates/successors. Peter Steenkamp retired as CEO of Harmony Gold in December and was replaced by group COO Beyers Nel, who took over at the beginning of the year. Thermal coal miner Thungela Resources is also on the verge of a leadership succession. CEO July Ndlovu is set to retire in July, and will be replaced by Moses Madondo – the CEO of De Beers Group Managed Operations. Industry veteran Michael Schmidt in 2023 stepped down as African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) CEO after more than a decade at the helm and was replaced by then-COO Velile Phillip Tobias. Exxaro Resources is on the lookout for a new CEO after the acrimonious departure of Nombasa Tsengwa this month, after her suspension in December. The exit of Natascha Viljoen as CEO of Amplats at the tail end of 2023 to take up a senior post at Newmont leaves Kumba boss Mpumi Zikalala as the sole female CEO of a JSE-listed mining house. Viljoen, with more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, was swiftly replaced by Amplats’ then CFO Craig Miller.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kabelo Khumalo at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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